1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a system and method for determining revenue derived from interactions involving personal information. The invention more particularly relates to the determination of revenue derived from an intermediary based on interactions involving personal information associated with end users aggregated from one or more personal information providers.
2. Description of Related Art
Looking back over the last five years, it is apparent that as the Internet gained momentum, consumers demanded applications or services that make their online experience simpler, easier to use, and more satisfying. The development of successful Internet Sites has corresponded with a number of themes which have developed over the last few years. When carefully analyzed this evolution is a logical development of the emerging digital economy.
Prior to 1994, the Internet was not a mass media, in part, because the existing technologies (FTP, Archie, Usenet, and Gopher) were not user friendly and required the end user to do all of the work (e.g., the end user had to learn of an existing data source, find the address, navigate to the destination, and download the information). As m consumers began accessing the Internet, Search Engines were created to solve this usability issue. With the advent of the commercial Search Engine, additional content could be easily added to the Internet and the end user had a means of finding and accessing this information. Consumers required better tools than Search Engines for organizing and accessing this wealth of generic content. Push technologies were explored, and eventually, the portal strategy was successfully adopted as an efficient way for consumers to easily access a variety of content sources in a single, easy to use format. As the volume of available online content continues to grow exponentially, portals are now confronted with the need to make different types of content available to different consumers based upon their particular preferences and tastes.
The phenomenal success of Internet portals and destination sites has demonstrated the importance of creatively and intelligently aggregating, organizing and presenting the mass of information available on the Web. Search engines, portals and destination sites have Internet strategies based on the frequency, duration and quality of end user visits to their sites. For this reason, destination sites and portals are constantly seeking content and/or technologies which drive quality traffic to their site and keep it there. Recent trends indicate that Internet users are up to 25 times more likely to come back to a site when this information is organized according to personal preferences.
FIG. 1 displays the current process of acquiring online PI 100. The end user first selects an information provider site in step 110. The end user proceeds to step 120 by locating and entering the Internet address of the selected information provider. This step may be accomplished in several manners with varying levels of complexity. A simple means for accomplishing this step is the utilization of a bookmark or favorite whereas locating an information provider for the first time might involve significant time and effort performing online searches. In step 130, the end users logs into the selected information provider""s Web site utilizing the site""s specific logon protocol. This protocol usually involves verifying the identity of the end user using a user name and password or other means of verification, acquiring the verification data from cookies residing on the end user""s system or a combination of requested data and cookie data. The end user continues in step 140 by navigating through Web pages on the information provider""s Web site until the desired information is located. During this process, the end user is often required to visit Web pages of little or no use to the end user whose goals is to simply acquire the particular PI residing on the Web site. Ultimately in step 150, the end user is presented with the desired PI. The entire process 100 is repeated for each individual piece of PI desired by the end user. Under this PI access model, the end user must visit each separate information provider, track potentially different identity verification data for each, utilize a different user interface at each site and possibly wade through a significant number of filler Web pages.
FIG. 4 pictorial illustrates the architecture of this current access process. The end user 210 utilizes the client computer 220 to access each PI Web site 250 across the Internet 230. This current model suffers from several significant deficiencies. The end user must login to each site separately. Each separate site has its own graphical user interface. Each site wants the end user to stay and return; each visited site wants to retain end user focus for as long as possible. No true aggregation of PI exists; multiple accesses simply allow sequential access to particular pieces of PI.
One partial solution to these problems has recently evolved in the form of portal sites. Generic portal sites aggregate resources into categories and provide links to sites covering topics within those categories. Yahoo and Excite are examples of generic portal sites. These sites facilitate horizontal aggregation of generic content; horizontal aggregation refers to aggregation of PI access within a particular information provider category such as banks or utility companies. Some portal site allows individual end users a limited capability to select and configure disparate generic PI. Generic PI refers to PI of interest to the particular end user that does not require specific identity verification to obtain. For example, an end user might be interested in the weather forecast for his local area. This information could be integrated into a portal page without requiring identity verification of the particular end user receiving this PI. The individualized portal page provides a significant benefit to users seeking to aggregate generic PI. However, current portal pages do not generally provide PI requiring identity verification such as an end user""s stock portfolio or bank balance. Further, these pages do not facilitate transactions utilizing PI.
Under current technology, aggregating PI available over the Internet requires a significant burden in terms of time, effort and learning curve. An end user wishing to access his PI needs to individually visit a variety of information provider sites each with its own requirements, graphical user interface and login protocol.
In the present invention, a host computer monitors interactions between end users and personal information providers via an intermediary computer. Interactions will generally fall into two categories: requests for delivery of personal information and requests for transactions involving personal information. The host computer communicates with a personal information store for storing personal information associated with end users and an accounting store for storing accounting data associated with the intermediary computer. The host computer includes a processor.
The host computer processor receives requests concerning personal information associated with an end user from the intermediary computer and services the request based on personal information associated with the end user in the personal information store. The host computer processor updates the accounting data associated with the intermediary computer. The host computer processor may update the accounting data in a variety of ways. First, the host computer processor may increment a user count for each new user of the intermediary computer over a selected period of time. Next, the host computer processor may count the interactions performed through the intermediary computer. Third, the host computer processor may, where the service request is a request to perform a transaction, increment a commission total an amount based on the serviced request. Finally, the host computer processor may use any combination of these ways to update the accounting data associated with the intermediary computer.
The host computer processor generates invoices to the intermediary computer based on the updated accounting data. The host computer processor may generate such invoices on a periodic basis. In a further embodiment, the host computer processor may deliver the generated invoices to a selected destination such as an electronic mail destination, a print device, a Web page residing on a Web server, an Internet client, a telephone, and a facsimile.
In yet another embodiment, the intermediary computer has an account associated with it. The host computer processor may debit this account prior to generating an invoice so that the generated invoice only reflects additional revenue beyond the amount indicated by the intermediary computer account. The amount debited may be based upon the updated accounting data associated with the intermediary computer using any of the aforementioned update types.
The above and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent when reference is made to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.